European Commission launches stakeholder dialogue on Article 17 of the Copyright Directive

By Emmanuel Legrand

The European Commission is organising a stakeholder dialogue with interested parties on the application of Article 17 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. The objective of the dialogue is "to hear stakeholders’ views and to discuss possible practical solutions for the application of Article 17, including actions to be taken by online content-sharing service providers with regard to unauthorised content, taking into account the interests of all relevant parties and the safeguards for users," according to the Commission.

 

  The organisation of a dialogue was required by Article 17 itself, which codifies the use of protected content by online content-sharing service providers. Paragraph 10 of Article 17 concludes that the Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, shall organise stakeholder dialogues "to discuss best practices for cooperation between online content-sharing service providers and rightholders and also issue guidance on the application of this Article."

  While discussing best practices, stakeholders should take into account "the need to balance fundamental rights and of the use of exceptions and limitations."

 

Mapping out existing practices

  Interested parties invited to the dialogue include representative organisations of stakeholders, such as EU level representatives of rights holders, of online content-sharing service providers and of consumers, users and fundamental rights organisations.

 

  Article 17, formerly known as Article 13, was one of the most contentious and hard-fought provision in the proposed Copyright Directive voted by the Parliament and adopted by the Council of Europe earlier this year. Article 17 calls for so-called “Online Content Sharing Service Providers” (OCSSP) to obtain proper licenses from rights holders for content. OCSSPs are now liable if they make copyrighted content publicly available for profit via their services, although Paragraph 4 of Article 17 introduces several safeguards for OCSSPs. 

 

  The dialogue is coordinated by the Copyright Unit I.2 within DG Connect, in charge of the Commission's policy in the area of copyright and related rights. The Commission will hold the first meeting of the stakeholder dialogue on October 15, in Brussels (the deadline for applying is September 18). The outcome of the discussions will feed into the preparation of the Commission’s guidance on the application of Article 17. 

  The Commission said the goal of the first meeting will be "to start mapping out existing practices related to the use of copyright-protected content by online content-sharing service providers in cooperation with rights holders, as well as to gather user experiences."

 

  Further meetings will be organised until the end of 2019 or early 2020.